Hardaway Still a Spartan...For Now

Don Hoekwater

01/09/2013

Wide receiver Delvon Hardaway committed to San Jose State shortly his official visit in early December, only to see the head coach who recruited him bolt to Colorado. Hardaway chose SJSU over offers from two other schools, one of which is Colorado. Inside Sparta spoke on Wednesday with Hardaway to see how things stand. He said he's still a Spartan, but is keeping his options open.

One of the hallmarks of Mike MacItyre's philosophy while recruiting student-athletes at San Jose State emphasized integrity, that once a player gave his word by making a verbal pledge, his recruitment was considered ended. Any visits to other schools resulted in the immediate revoking of the scholarship offer.

Wide receiver Delvon Hardaway of Dorsey High School in Los Angeles made that commitment to MacIntyre and SJSU during his official visit the weekend of Dec. 7, 2012, only to see the coach who emphasized that commitments were binding, left SJSU for Colorado shortly after Hardaway made his pledge. That's how the business of college football coaching is conducted, and it's unreasonable to fault MacIntyre for quadrupling his salary and taking over a Bowl Championship Subdivision program.

However, this situation creates a bit of a conundrum for Hardaway as MacIntyre, along with assistant Charles Clark - who was recruiting the talented wideout - are now at a school that has an outstanding offer to Hardway. Did Hardaway commit to the coaches or to the institution?

"I'm still committed to San Jose State," Hardaway told Inside Sparta. "Right now that's where I am with the recruiting process."

New SJSU head coach Ron Caragher, as well as new wide receivers coach Greg Lewis, have been in contact with Hardway.

"We've only had a chance to talk for a sec, but they're both planning to come down to visit me next week," he said. "That will give us more time to talk and I'll get to find out what kind of offense they run and what their plans are."

Enter, or to be more precise, re-enter Colorado.
"I talked to coach Clark today and I'll be visiting there on the 18th (of Jan.)," Hardway said. "My offer still stands so I'm going to go check them out."

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Hardaway added that he hasn't yet had a chance to speak directly with MacIntyre.

"Coach Clark told me that their policy was not to recruit players who were committed to other schools," Hardway said when asked about MacIntyre's stress on keeping commitments. "But Colorado is still interested in me. They have three receivers already so Coach Clark told me he'd be in contact if anything popped up. I'll give things a chance to settle down and then I'll make my final decision."

Three other Spartan commitments were visiting SJSU the same weekend as Hardaway, and he said they were in contact with each other immediately after getting the news of MacIntyre's departure."

"I talked to (Darrel) Garretson and Thomas Tucker and we all agreed we were going to stick with San Jose State," he said. "But for them that's their only offer so far. I'm the only one with other offers. It would take a big change of heart for me to pick another school, though."

Hardway's third offer is from Colorado State, but he said he has no interest in the Rams. However, another California school has jumped into the mix. Hardway is scheduled to visit Fresno State this weekend.

"They haven't offered yet," he said. "But they want me to visit so I'm going to check them out."

Don Hoekwater is the Publisher of Inside Sparta. You are welcome to contact Don with any questions or suggestions at publisher@insidesparta.net.